1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for transmitting services, and in particular, to systems for broadcasting multiple services to subscribers via satellite.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems broadcast signals including a range of different channels over a wide coverage region. The signals are then received by users with an antenna having a low noise block converter (LNB) and communicated to an integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) which receives and decodes the channels based upon user selections or other criteria. In such conventional systems the broadcaster sends most channels or services on one frequency and tunes each of these services independently. Additionally, services which must be continuously monitored and/or acquired, are typically sent on all frequencies and received in conjunction with other services.
To expand such systems to provide additional services that must be continuously monitored and/or acquired, while maintaining compatibility with legacy equipment, would normally require simply appending the new services on all frequencies as the existing services. However, such a system and method quickly and inefficiently consumes the available data rate of the frequencies.
There is a need in the art for systems and methods which use available frequencies more efficiently to deliver services to users. There is further a need for systems and methods which do not require additional cabling by the user for expanding services.